Thursday, February 23, 2017

Twig & Tale Upcycle Tour

As you may know, I love a good upcycle challenge. It's so rewarding to give old, worn-out clothes a new life, especially when you have worn these clothes with love. I bought these red corduroy pants when I was a student and used to wear them a lot, but some years ago I decided that it was time to move them to my stash pile.

They have been there for quite a while, waiting for the right moment to make their reappearance. And that moment finally came when I was asked to participate in the upcycle blog tour of Twig and Tale.

Twig and Tale is the New Zealand based pattern company of Lisa Spearman, who designs whimsical, nature-inspired, easy-to-sew children's clothes. In her pattern instructions she pays special attention to which materials are suitable to upcycle for the different parts of the garment.

Since I was short on time for this tour, I chose a quick project: the Wild Things Hooded Scarf. This is a hat and scarf combined in one, with ears! The pattern comes with a whole menagerie of animals to choose from; zebra, fox, bear, lion, cat, bunny, yes even a giraffe! I wanted to have a fur-lined hood, so I chose the lion.

I happened to have some colourful plaid cotton in my stash that matched nicely with the red corduroy, and therefore could be used as lining fabric. I didn't have any fur though, so I went to the fabric market where I found a whole bin of fur remnants in all colours. This orange-blue fur matched perfectly with the lining fabric.

Next up, cutting the pattern pieces. When upcycling old garments, this is always a puzzle. In this case, the front legs were pretty worn out, so I cut the long scarf pattern parts from the back legs. There was still enough usable fabric on the front legs to cut the hood parts.

The hood originally consists of three parts but since my fur was very thick, I split the front band into two narrower bands (with added seam allowance), the back part in the main/lining fabric, and the front part in fur.

Then it was just a matter of following the pattern instructions, which were clear and straightforward.

My son is almost 4, so I made him a size 3-5 yr. It's a bit big on him, and the long fur gets into his eyes and mouth. But when he's wearing it on top of his wool hat, the fur doesn't bother him. I might be biased but think he looks so cute in it. A mix between a lion and an inuit boy.

Be sure to visit the other participants on the blog tour, there is more eye candy waiting for you!

12 comments:

Wow this is so stunning - what an awesome thrift shop find that fur was! it works so beautifully with your upcycled student pants :) Thanks so much for joining in with us, you have inspired me to have a play with some fur! Lisa x

Ooh, I love this idea! Just yesterday I threw all the corduroy pants and fabrics out of my cupboard to turn them into a quilt. I'm sure there's more than enough left to turn into some hats. :) Aaand happens that I have some bits of white & black faux-fur as well... :)

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Welcome to my blog!
I'm Saskia, scientist by day, seamstress by night. I live in the Netherlands and love to sew cool and comfortable clothes for my three kids. One day I might start sewing for myself too...